


Are You Sure....?

by DPPatricks



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Genre: Angst, Background - Freeform, Gen, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:22:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24497875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DPPatricks/pseuds/DPPatricks
Summary: Starsky and Hutch go to a low-rent amusement park for a very unusual reason.
Relationships: Ken Hutchinson/David Starsky
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	Are You Sure....?

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written in response to the Starsky&Hutch Fans&FanFiction FaceBook page’s challenge posted on 5/29/20. The prompt phrase was “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Tell me something, Hutch.”

“Almost anything.”

“‘ _Almost_ anything’?”

“Correction. Anything.”

“What are we doin’ here in this two-bit amusement park on the only day off we’ve had in over three weeks?”

I couldn’t keep the deep, tense sigh behind my teeth and Starsky heard it. 

“I’m listenin’.”

I really didn’t want to tell him but he was my best friend, the kind of partner I’d hoped, eventually, to find when I decided to enter the police academy, but never believed I would. I couldn’t lie to him; he had to know. Not only because our partnership was based on trust, but also because I was pretty sure I couldn’t do this without him. “I have to go through the Fun House. And I need you with me.”

He stopped in his tracks and caught my arm. We were suddenly an island in a sea of moving people and he looked at me, probably to determine if I was joking. I wasn’t, and he knew it. “Okay, I’ll say it again. I’m listening.”

This wasn’t going quite the way I’d planned and I needed my thoughts in order before I tried to explain. “Let’s get a beer and sit for a minute.”

He followed me as I walked to the closest beverage vendor and bought us two cups of foaming brew. We sat across from each other at the fly-specked table farthest from the crowd. He didn’t say a word but his inquisitive concern was supportive. _Best partner ever!_ I thought, again.

“When I was nine years old,” I began, attempting to sound calm, “I went to a birthday party for a friend. His parents decided it would be great to hold it at the local amusement park. There were ten of us and we did have a good time. The roller coaster had a decent first drop and the Tilt-a-Whirl taught me what centrifugal force was all about. I was enjoying myself… until the school bully, who I presumed had shown up without an invitation, caught me coming out of the Men’s Room, hit me on the back of the head with something, and dragged me into the Fun House. Through the back door.” 

I sipped my beer and refused to meet Starsky’s eyes. He remained quiet and, amazingly, patient.

“I found out, later, that he worked at the park, part-time, and off the books, helping with maintenance and cleanup.”

“So he knew all about the place. Right?”

I nodded.

“What happened?” The question was spoken so softly no one else could have heard.

“He blew some kind of powder in my face. While I was coughing and sputtering, he tied me up, stuck a gag in my mouth, wrapped something around my head to keep it there, and left.”

“I take it there was no one else around.”

“Not in that part of the place anyway.”

“How long did he leave you there?” Starsky asked.

“I have no idea. You see, the powder was some sort of hallucinogenic and I was tripping.” Finally, I met his gaze. “I didn’t know that at the time. All I knew was that I was seeing images I hoped weren’t real and my mind was a thing I couldn’t control.” 

He reached across the table and laid a hand on my arm. “It’s okay, Hutch, you can tell me anything. I’m right here.”

And, with that assurance, I unlocked and opened the mental compartment I’d kept sealed away for over twenty-five years. Starsky was, indeed, right here, and I could depend on his unquestioning support. I covered his hand with mine for a second before we both picked our beers up again.

“You know me well enough, Starsk, to know that, even at nine years old, being out of control like that was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. Somehow, Ronald Drury knew it would be, too.” 

“Were you aware, before this happened, of how much he hated you?”

“No. Oh, I knew he held a grudge against me for informing his teachers and the principal of his bullying, but I never considered that he’d physically act on that ill-feeling. The only result of my… tattling, was that he was suspended for a week. From the way I knew he hated school, I thought he’d most likely consider the hand-slap as a reward.”

Starsky tried a grin but it appeared brittle. “It really is good to know you can be wrong once in a while.”

I huffed and actually felt better. Starsky was listening, and understanding. _The very best partner!_

Starsky finished his beer, checked silently with me and, when I shook my head, got up and went for a second for himself. After he sat back down, he put as light a tone in his voice as he could probably manage. “Do I assume this little villain-in-the-making went out and told some cockeyed story to the party boy’s parents about why you’d gone missing?”

“Apparently, that’s exactly what he did.” I drank a little more brew. “When I got out of the hospital two days later, they came to the house to make sure I was okay and told me Ronald, the dear boy, had said I’d been taken ill in the Men’s Room and he’d called an ambulance for me. Said I hadn’t wanted anyone at the party to know, didn’t want to interrupt the festivities, so he’d kept quiet.”

“Who found you?”

“No one found me. He came back.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “He came back, after the park was closed, and untied me. I’d already pissed and soiled myself during the visions, which was humiliating enough, but then he chased me through the Fun House with what I think was a hatchet. Thankfully, I never got a real close look. I was on the backside of the drug trip but it was a nightmare. He’d turned on all the scary parts of the attraction and the volume of the screams was deafening. Some of them were probably mine.” 

“How did you get out?” His voice was taut and I knew he was seething.

“Through sheer dumb luck, I guess. I found the main entrance and bolted out into the deserted park. The security guard who patrolled the place at night found me. He probably thought I’d taken whatever I was coming down from voluntarily but he called the cops and an ambulance.”

“Did Ronald, the dear boy, pay for his little… fun in the Fun House?”

“If you mean, did I and my parents file charges, the answer is, No. My folks were also of the opinion that I’d been responsible for what had happened. Father managed to keep any report of the incident out of the papers, smoothed things over with the police, and told me to keep my mouth shut about the two days in the hospital.”

“You’re kidding!”

“God, Starsk, I wish I was.”

“Don’t think I ever want to go to Duluth with you, Hutch. I might not be able to keep from slamming my fist into your old man’s face. How dare he not know you better than that?”

“Ancient history, partner. Forget it.”

“Not hardly,” he muttered.

“Anyway,” I continued, “now you know why we’re here.”

“Yeah, I finally figured it out. We start an undercover assignment at Magic Mountain next week so you think you need to go through the Fun House, here, and put to rest any demons lurking around from your nine-year-old experience.”

“You should be a detective,” I said, trying for levity.

“Hutch…” His midnight blue gaze drilled into my eyes. “You’re the bravest person I’ve ever known. If we have any reason at all to have to go in that Magic Mountain attraction, you’ll handle it. You wouldn’t let the memory of what Rotten Ronald did to you affect your job. I know you, even if your father didn’t.”

“I appreciate the thought, Starsk. But ever since Dobey told us where we’d be going, and about our maintenance jobs there, I’ve been having flashbacks. I can’t take the chance I’d freak out if we had to go into their Fun House/House of Horrors - whatever theirs is called.”

“That’s a stretch, buddy.”

“No, it isn’t. As well as you know me, you don’t have my memories.”

Starsky got up and threw our empty cups in the trash can. As he came back, he clipped the back of my head lightly in passing. “For which I am heartily glad.” He was chuckling. “At least for today.”

We made our way out of the vendor’s area and into the happy crowd, walking in the direction of the garishly painted structure ahead of us. The large sign above the entrance identified it as “The House of Delight and Horror.”

The closer we got, the more my fear translated itself into a tension I knew Starsky could feel.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.

“No, but…”

“I’m right here, Hutch. I’ll always be right here.”

“Thanks, Starsk. I mean that.”

“I know. So let’s get this over with, put your demons to rest, and then find something better to do with our day off. But I’m tellin’ ya…” He moved a step away and grinned at me. “I ain’t gonna hold your hand in there.”

I laughed out loud. I couldn’t help it. David Starsky was the very best partner I could ever want.

END


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